It is known in the art to equip protecting helmets, in particular for motorcycle use or generally for motoring use, with a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower the protective visor with respect to the front opening of the helmet, the mechanism allowing the visor not only to rotate around a given axis, but also either to translate or further rotate around a different axis, with respect to the outer shell of the helmet itself, so as to define positions in which the visor is closer to or farther from the outer shell or seals normally surrounding the afore said front opening of the helmet.
This makes it possible to ensure that the visor, when completely lowered, is close to the outer shell and adheres to the seals delimiting the front opening while ensuring, at the same time, that the distance between the visor and seals allows a proper inflow of air inside the helmet when the visor is raised to an intermediate position in which it partially intercepts the front opening, and further ensuring that the visor, when completely raised, can remain in close proximity of the outer shell thereby reducing both the bulk and the surface of incidence stricken by the airflow during vehicle motion.
Moreover, such a raising/lowering mechanism may also allow the visor, when in its fully lowered position, to be arranged flush with the ends of the outer shell that surround the afore said front opening, and at the same time to be easily raised by the user thanks to the translation, enabled by this raising/lowering mechanism, of the protective visor itself away from the front opening.
It should be noted that hereinafter, for the sake of simplicity, the protective visor of the helmet is considered to be in its fully lowered position when it completely, or almost completely, covers the above said front opening of the helmet and, on the contrary, to be in its completely raised position when it does not interfere at all, or nearly so, with such front opening.
The European Patent Application EP-A-0797935, in the name of EDC, describes a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower the protective visor of a motorcyclist helmet, the mechanism being able to impart to the visor a rotatory-translatory motion according to a substantially elliptic trajectory such that the protective visor is closer to the outer shell of the helmet at least in its completely lowered position and is instead farther from the outer shell in intermediate raised positions. In practice, such mechanism provides that each of the side ends of the protective visor is constrained to the outer shell of the helmet by means of a suitably designed four-bar linkage to allow the visor, in its completely lowered position, to be in close contact with the outer shell and to be instead spaced from the outer shell itself in its other raised positions.
This solution however shows, although extremely effective, in addition to albeit limited structural complexity, a certain lack of flexibility as regards the adaptation of the law of motion imparted by the lifting/lowering mechanism to the protective visor, when the overall geometry of the helmet varies. In fact, the law of motion imparted to the protective visor by the raising/lowering mechanism can be modified only by changing the geometry of the four-bar linkage and, in particular, the dimensions of the respective cranks.
The Patent Application EP-A-1856999, in the name of SHOEI, relates to a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower the protective visor of a protecting motorcycling helmet which provides, on the outer shell of the helmet, a base member fastened on either side of the front opening and a movable body constrained to the base member so as to be able to translate back and forth with respect to the front opening of the helmet and to which a side end of the protective visor is rotatably constrained. A cam and a relevant follower, both respectively integral with the visor and the base member or vice versa, cause the protective visor, during the raising thereof, to translate in a controlled way closer to or away from the outer shell.
This solution, allowing a combined movement of translation and rotation of the protective visor simple to be implemented, even if affected by a considerable structural complexity, is efficient and fairly adaptable to the different geometries of the protecting helmet thanks to the fact that, just changing the profile of the cam, the law of motion of the protective visor can be varied to a certain extent.
The Korean Patent KR-A-20-2003-0040194, in the name of KIDO, relates to a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower a protective visor of a protecting helmet comprising at least one base member integral with the outer shell of the helmet at a side area of the front opening of the helmet itself, which is provided with a toothed guide profile and to which a lever body is pivoted and provided with hooking means to hook with a side end of the protective visor itself. The lever body is forced into a rest position by a return spring interposed between the base member and the lever body itself. A dedicated follower pin, obtained on the same side end of the protective visor hooked to the lever body, engages with the toothed guide profile of the base member in such a way that the rotation of the protective visor during the raising/lowering thereof, depending on the shape of the toothed guide profile and overcoming the resistance given by the afore said return spring, causes both the lever body to swing with respect to the base member and the protective visor itself to move away from or closer to the outer shell of the helmet.
Although the solution of KIDO Patent is structurally simple and mechanically efficient, it shows the drawback that the follower pin, engaged in the depressions of the toothed guide profile, is constantly subject to the load applied both by the visor and the return spring of the lever body and, therefore, requires an overdimensioning.
It is an object of the present invention to realize a protecting helmet provided with a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower the protective visor, the mechanism allowing the visor itself to roto-translate or rotate effectively around multiple axes in a simply and structurally not complex way and being able to easily adapt to possible geometrical changes of the protecting helmet itself.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a protecting helmet having a raising/lowering mechanism to raise/lower the protective visor, the mechanism allowing the latter, during the raising and lowering thereof, to move closer to and away from the outer shell of the helmet and not having the drawbacks of the known prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to realize a protecting helmet which allows an effective management of the raising and lowering of the respective protective visor by means of a respective raising/lowering mechanism which is easy to be implemented on the helmet itself.